The privatisation of Royal Mail was mooted by all the main political parties and finally happened under the last government.
Like a lot of the public sector, our postal service suffered from years of underinvestment and a failure to modernise.
The political consensus in the Thatcher years, and beyond, became public equals bad, private equals good.
Our party got wrapped up in this to some extent and a policy of part-privatisation of Royal Mail was adopted prior to the 2010 General Election.
Not a member at the time, I was somewhat surprised at this move because I had always thought of the Lib Dems as defenders of a public post office, particulary in relation to campaigning for the retention of a strong retail arm.
However, being in coalition put our ministers in charge of the sell-off and a private Royal Mail is now a reality.
So how are things going?
First of all, it seems hard to argue that the shares weren’t sold too cheaply at 330p, when they have traded well above that and currently stand at around 460p.
Secondly, services are suffering, delivery times are even more inconsistent than before and collection time changes are due to be introduced that will adversely affect customer service.
The regulator seems incapable of squaring the circle of encouraging competition whilst at the same time protecting the Universal Service Obligation (USO).
Senior management in the company are like rabbits caught in the headlights as they struggle to find more areas to cut and ponder why productivity is poor.
In the retail arm, which remains in state hands, closures have continued and if my local office is anything to go by, the queues get longer and longer.
It really is time to evaluate.
We can’t turn the clock back. The reality is that Royal Mail will now remain in the private sector, but we do need a well thought-out policy on postal services going forward.
Public or private, we are still talking about an important part of our nation’s social fabric.
* David Warren is a Lib Dem campaigner and a very small stakes gambler!